Philosophy, trails and Research: Hiking Landscapes of understanding

Bridge and wall builders

Connecting and dividing in modern and ancient reality

Drawing and text by Frits Ahlefeldt

The basic building blocks in landscape ecology, trail design and maybe even in our understandings of reality, are paths and places. Together these lines, that give direction and connect, and bordered patches, that define places, might be said to make up the mosaics we use to navigate and make sense of directions and places – both inside and outside our heads

Building bridges across borders, and walls to strengthen the same borders seems to me, to be two of the strongest forces that we have used to form our landscapes and strengthen our understandings throughout human history.

Today we build new walls faster than ever before, and at the same time our technology and global cultures bridge across them, and pull our diverse worlds closer together, even faster than the new walls can separate them.